DescriptionThe importance of emotional intelligence (EI) has been examined in many different contexts, such as education, health, personal relationships, social adjustment, and work. Research also confirms the unique role that emotional intelligence plays in effective leadership. The expanding role of the school psychologist, specifically in the area of systems level programming and change, has created a new set of challenges and opportunities and, subsequently, the need for strong leadership skills. This exploratory study investigated the relationship between EI, school psychology effectiveness, and leadership emergence. Using the critical incident technique, the researcher interviewed six school psychologists who were nominated by others as highly effective, emotionally intelligent leaders. The goals of the interviews were to better understand how the school psychologists used emotional intelligence abilities to deal with challenging situations, and to identify how emotional intelligence contributed to their emergence as leaders. One outcome of the study is that the school psychologists managed stressful and emotionally charged incidents by skillfully combining the four core abilities included in the Mayer-Salovey model of emotional intelligence. In addition, the interviews suggested that emotional intelligence alone does not make leaders; rather, it is the use of emotional intelligence in the service of values, particularly a deep caring and concern for others and for the institution’s mission, that produces leaders. One other idea that emerged from the study is that EI seems to be important not only during challenging situations; it also helped these school psychologists become respected leaders because of the way they consistently used and modeled emotional intelligence during more routine interactions. A practical implication suggested by the study is that students in school psychology programs would benefit from more explicit training in how to use emotional intelligence in dealing with interpersonal and organizational challenges. This training would not only prepare them to deal with those challenges; it also would prime them to be future school psychologist leaders.